Category: Rants

The gist of this post: Birchbox is scuttling their reward points for reviews feature in July 2016 and I’m salty about that.

I like subscription boxes. They are like a little present every month. Sure, the size of the samples are typically abysmally small and half the time I’m unable to use a product because it’s swimming with Vitamin E but I love them nonetheless. I’ve tried a bunch of different boxes but the one that was my all time fave was Birchbox. Why? Well it wasn’t for the size of the samples I’ll tell you that much. No, it was because they rewarded points for writing reviews. I loved this feature so much that I’ve stayed subbed to Birchbox far longer than I probably would have. Obviously I loved it because if I wrote a review for each of the five samples I received I’d be rewarded with 50 points and after four months of reviews I’d earn $20 off my next purchase which was always a huge incentive to buy things from Birchbox. That approach seemed like a win-win to me. I also liked that I wouldn’t let my samples gather dust every month waiting for a good opportunity to use them. Instead, I’d try them all within the month so I could write my reviews. Now, in fairness, I always took my time to write useful reviews that I hoped were helpful instead of just writing nonsense so I could meet the minimum word count. But, I felt like I saw vastly more thoughtful reviews than just junk when I’d browse products and that was always really useful when making purchases. I’ve opted to make more purchases from Birchbox than other similar retailers because of this whole reward point system. I felt like I was being rewarded for my loyalty and time and as such I would return that favor. But Birchbox no longer wants to reward subscribers for writing reviews. Instead they will now only reward points for the FIRST five sample reviews and then NEVER again. It’s their prerogative to do so but in my case it’s going to hurt them. I will be cancelling my sub to voice my displeasure over losing this.